Brentford Football Club

With Brentford Football Club stepping up into the Premier League, the highest tier of English football, the stakes have never been higher. The game has changed. The goalposts have shifted. And they’re the team with something to prove. 

With the promotion comes new expectations. Every game is played on the world stage — and that requires seamless operations. It’s not just the players on the field, either. It’s the team behind the team, raising standards together and driving each goal forward. From keeping players match-ready with personalized kit to managing broadcasters and hundreds of stewards, there’s no room for error. And it takes teamwork and tech to keep it all in check. 

Here’s how Brentford and SafetyCulture work together to get it right the first time – and every single time after that.

 

Keeping their eye on the ball

Recent years have seen Brentford tick off many milestones, one of which is opening their new stadium —  one of the most significant developments in the history of Brentford Football Club. The Brentford Community Stadium can hold up to 17,250 people per game, and it’s not just home to football but professional rugby games as well. This means getting the site match-ready is a huge process — as soon as a Bees home game finishes, the Brentford operations team is already planning for the switchover to the next scheduled rugby match. This includes swapping out branding, barrier jacket covers, and even hospitality area layouts. 

 Pre and post-match checklists help the operations team stay on top of the countless moving parts involved in hosting thousands of fans at Brentford Community Stadium. Keeping track of accreditation, managing broadcasters, responding to unexpected events like rogue drone flights and cheeky streakers — it’s all in a day’s work. Not to mention the bread and butter tasks like setting up barriers, seating and ensuring punters can all grab a pint at halftime.

To give some idea of what’s at stake, we spoke to Jess Morris, Operations Manager at Brentford. 

“Before we were in the Premier League, we had limited formalized processes. We’ve all had to raise the bar in terms of outputs,” says Jess. “Things we could’ve gotten away with before, we couldn’t now. We have a small team and we quickly went from being a traditional club that was relatively old school in its processes… to having to tighten up.”

In its day-to-day operations, Brentford strives to be the very best it can be. With the frequency of checks that requires, logging a mental checklist or using pen and paper quickly becomes a burden. “Before SafetyCulture platform, it was impossible for people to not be around,” says Jess. “We’ve got a small team, so we need to make sure people can jump in and out of different tasks and know what’s going on.” Brentford turned to SafetyCulture platform to digitize their pre-match procedures. SafetyCulture platform is being used to ensure the grounds are in good order, managing accreditation, security, and cleaning.

Kitting out the team

When the Brentford team turns out every game all prepped in perfect kit, well, you have Bob Oteng and his team to thank for it. Bob is Kit Logistics Manager at Brentford FC, and it’s on him to ensure each player and member of staff has everything they need to do their job.. 

“At this level, it’s zero tolerance for error. We need to make sure that all players have what they need, and that evolves week to week with squad changes”, says Bob.

It’s not simply a matter of sorting shirts, shorts and boots, and the right sock sizes. Each player has their own idiosyncracies — requiring individual kit set ups. One player might only play in extra small shorts, another might want socks of a certain length. Bob is the go-to expert when it comes to such crucial information, having all the specific requirements that help the team play at their best at his fingertips. It’s a key behind-the-scenes role and with that comes a lot of pressure to ensure nothing is forgotten.

With SafetyCulture platform, all this becomes shared knowledge. Daily training and match day checks mean that anyone in Bob’s team can pick up a device and tick off each item required by the club’s player roster, catering for their clothing, footwear, and equipment needs. This eases the mental load considerably — online documentation means that Bob has faith his team has the know-how to get the job done well and all the kit required will make it to game day.

Keeping up both home and away

Coordinating operations in line with the Premier League’s fixtures is no easy task. Managing home and away games and navigating new stadiums means the Brentford team has to keep their eye on the ball — and often, from a distance. With data centralized in SafetyCulture platform, everyone has sight over the work occurring that day, not just the team member logging the information. This is crucial for a dispersed team working from different stadiums.

“Logistically we’ll make sure everything is in place,” says Bob. “For away games, my assistant or I tend to drive in or fly in ahead of the team and speak to our director to make sure everything is coordinated… we speak to other parties, like the players and security. There’s a lot to factor in.” Especially with the challenges posed by COVID-19, going digital gives teams the ability to pick up work amid unexpected staffing changes.

Driving a culture change

Football is a diverse sport, bringing different communities and cultures together. The game is stronger for it, and the Premier League is committed to protecting and promoting this diversity across all aspects of the sport. They provide a framework to support clubs in setting and achieving their targets for greater representation and improving their policies and practices. 

Brentford has outlined a three year strategy to put inclusion at the heart of everything the club does — from the community, fans and players, to using the Brentford Community Stadium to amplify their messages. They aim to be market leaders in their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) work and training is a big part of this. 

Now, Brentford is introducing a mobile learning element to their EDI training with EdApp by SafetyCulture. From fan education to annual EDI training for players, coaches and staff, using microlessons helps to make these learnings stick. More so than that, the Premier League Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard (PLEDIS), the league’s accreditation system, is  progressive — always evolving and improving since its introduction in 2015. Best practice is continually developing so microlearning tools like EdApp can help enhance employee understanding, drive effective implementation and keep on top of improvements.

 

READ MORE: BRENTFORD TEAMS UP WITH SAFETYCULTURE